Letters: If city auditor can’t do the job, he must resign

Recently, Galion City Council passed legislation requiring the city auditor to get his monthly balancing (reconciliations) all caught up by Sept. 1. Galion residents are probably shocked to find out that Brian Treisch, the city auditor, has not been balancing the city books on a monthly basis. In fact, when I last checked, he had not reconciled since March, nearly five months ago.

As the former treasurer of the City of Galion, I am appalled that the city auditor cannot do the monthly reconciliations. The city is in fiscal emergency and needs to be properly conducting its financial affairs. This monthly balancing (reconciliations) of the city is one of the main responsibilities of the city auditor.

Treisch has numerous excuses for his neglect of duty. One excuse is that he has two new employees and the state auditor will have to train them. Another excuse is that he could do the reconciliations on the old accounting system, but he cannot do them on the new accounting system. This is not a valid excuse. The auditor blames everyone else for his problems.

Even though the auditor has not balanced the city books in months, he continues to release financial reports, acting like everything is just fine. This is reminiscent of a former city auditor Bill Bauer, who didn’t do his job either, which ultimately caused the city to go into fiscal emergency in 2004.

Have we not learned anything?

At this point, Mr. Treisch, you need to resign. You are not doing your job. After three years in office, it is clear that you just cannot do your job and you need to go.